The 9th state of our 50 state road trip is Texas, where we’ll be spending 10 weeks in total. Our first stop was Dallas for 12 nights seeing as there seemed to be so much to do in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Unfortunately rain meant a lot of our plans were washed out, so we ended up spending quite a lot of time at our hotel. Thankfully we were staying in a nice hotel and so it wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been.
We’d booked all 12 nights at the Hyatt Place Dallas/Garland/Richardson which is to the northeast of Dallas. The original plan was to stay there using points, but a month before our stay I noticed they had a good paid rate and so rebooked to pay cash and save those points.
With excellent service and comfortable rooms, here’s a review of our stay at the Hyatt Place Dallas/Garland/Richardson.
Check-In
We’d driven from Altus, Oklahoma and had stopped off along the way at Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge, so we didn’t arrive until about 8pm.
There was no one else in line when we arrived, so we got checked in quickly. Both members of staff working the front desk that night were very friendly – as was all their staff throughout our stay – which was a welcome relief after the poor service we’d received at the Hampton Inn Altus the previous week.
After a couple of minutes we had our keys to room 409 and headed upstairs.
Bedroom
When entering the bedroom, the living area was to the left, the desk and dry bar to the right, the bedroom ahead to the left and the bathroom ahead to the right.
To the left of the room was a corner sleeper sofa you’ll be familiar with if you’ve ever stayed at a Hyatt Place. One minor complaint is that there were no power outlets on the left side of the room. I prefer working on that side of the couch, but my laptop cable didn’t reach the outlets on the right.
A blanket is normally stored in the unit to the right of the sofa. It was missing in our room, so we called the front desk to ask for one; they brought it up shortly after.
Opposite the sofa is a desk and office chair. That’d be a much better place for me to work from, but you can’t see the TV from there and I like having it on in the background.
Behind the desk was a dry bar and mini fridge. The fridge had a temperature control which I appreciated, but didn’t have a small freezer compartment.
Between the living room and bedroom was the TV which could be turned a little to face either direction.
We’d booked a room with a king bed, but they also have rooms with two queen beds. As I’ve found with all Hyatt Places we’ve stayed at, the bed and pillows were very comfortable and so we slept well as a result. Another feature I appreciated was having available power outlets on both sides of the bed.
The closet behind the TV contained an iron, ironing board, luggage rack and spare pillow.
Bathroom
The sink and vanity were opposite the bed, along with some drawers and an additional countertop for toiletries.
The toiletries were the standard Barney Kenet MD soap, shampoo and conditioner you’ll find at all Hyatt Places.
To the left of that was the main bathroom area containing the toilet and spacious walk-in shower. I was a little dubious initially about how good the shower door would be given that it didn’t provide a barrier all the way to the wall. It worked perfectly fine though as the small raised area at the bottom of the shower ensured no water leaked on to the floor.
Overall, we were very happy with our room. It felt spacious, the bed was comfortable, the shower had good water pressure and there was a decent fridge. Seeing as we live in hotels, we need mini-fridges to stay properly cold for food, not just as a place to keep drinks cool.
Breakfast
Breakfast is included when staying at Hyatt Place properties, although changes coming in November 2018 will affect breakfast eligibility. Basically, you’ll have to be a World of Hyatt member and book directly with Hyatt in order to get free breakfast at a Hyatt Place hotel. That means if you book your stay with Expedia, Hotels.com, etc. then you won’t have breakfast included for free.
The hot breakfast options change most days. The day I took the photo there was French toast, bacon and scrambled eggs. Other days there were breakfast potatoes, sausage links, biscuits and sausage gravy, corn and black beans, a quinoa/rice/kale blend and more.
Other than the hot items, the breakfast options remained the same each day. The staff at the Hyatt Place Dallas/Garland/Richardson did an excellent job of keeping them stocked – I don’t think I ever saw anything empty, even towards the end of the breakfast time.
The only thing they never had during our stay was English breakfast tea. I travel with my own box of PG Tips though (don’t judge me – I’m British!), so that wasn’t a huge issue.
Breakfast was served until 9:30am on weekdays and 10am on weekends. There was plenty of seating available; there’s a fairly large seating area behind where breakfast is served (see the photo below), plus there’s plenty of seating out in the lobby.
Amenities
The Hyatt Place Dallas/Garland/Richardson has some good amenities – some we used, some we didn’t. I’d recently decided to get back in shape having not exercised much since I ran a half-marathon last year, so used their fitness room almost every day during our stay.
This contained a few pieces of equipment, along with weights. Although the temperature in the fitness room can’t be adjusted by guests, I was grateful that it was set to 66° as I hate working out in warmer temperatures.
Just outside the fitness room is an outdoor swimming pool and whirlpool. The pool was a decent temperature, although neither of us went swimming during our stay.
We’d initially thought we’d need to find a laundromat as there was no sign directing to a guest laundry room on the first floor, nor was it listed as an amenity on their website.
We checked with the front desk though and were pleased when they advised there was one on the second floor. Both the washer and dryer cost $1.75 per load which is reasonable.
Just off the lobby area is a business center consisting of two computers and a printer.
The hotel also has a ton of meeting rooms. A church meets at the hotel on Sunday mornings and it seemed like they had either a large ballroom or rooms with removable room dividers in order to make one large room.
In addition to that, there were numerous smaller meeting rooms. Some of those seemed to be used for office meetings, although I also saw a yoga class being held in one as I walked by.
Pet-Friendliness
The Hyatt Place Dallas/Garland/Richardson is a pet-friendly hotel; that’s one of the reasons we chose it as we’re traveling with our dog Truffles.
The pet fee is meant to be $75 for 1-6 nights and $175 for 7+ nights. Even though we stayed for 12 nights, we were only charged the $75 level. It ended up being $84.75 as they charged city and state occupancy taxes on the $75. Most hotels have taxes included in the stated pet fee, but I can’t complain seeing as $84.75 is still less than half the $175 we expected to be charged.
There are grassy areas all around the hotel for your dog to do their stuff.
If they need more exercise, you can walk along Naaman Forest Blvd behind the hotel as there are sidewalks along both sides. We’d also recommend Bush Central Barkway Dog Park which is about 15 minutes away if you want somewhere to let your dog off-leash.
Service
I mentioned at the beginning of the review, but service at the hotel was simply excellent. Kylan in particular was amazing as he was incredibly friendly, welcoming and personable. Lacey and Larry were also great, although everyone we interacted with was fantastic.
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi at the hotel was free, had a good connection and seemed to be a good speed.
Location
If you need to be in the north Dallas area, the Hyatt Place Dallas/Garland/Richardson is probably in a great location for you. It’s just off President George Bush Turnpike and is fairly close to Route 75 which you can take into downtown Dallas.
The problem we had is that the hotel ended up being much further from places we wanted to visit than I realized. I know that everything is bigger in Texas, but I hadn’t appreciated quite how large the Dallas-Fort Worth area actually is. That meant it took much longer to get everywhere than expected. The almost nonstop rain didn’t help matters either, so traffic was even worse. None of that’s not the fault of the hotel though.
On the positive side, it’s close to restaurants, shopping, golf courses, parks, etc.
Parking
Parking at the hotel is free and there’s plenty of it. There’s a decent-sized parking lot out front, with a ton of spaces at the back of the hotel too.
Cost
Like I mentioned earlier, we switched from a points booking to a paid booking. That’s because the paid rate was only $85.43 per night including taxes, so $1,025.16 for 12 nights. Our final total was $1,109.91 as we also had to pay the pet fee.
We managed to greatly reduce that cost thanks to a couple of Amex Offers. Back in April, there was a Hyatt Regency Amex Offer offering $60 back when spending $200 at a Hyatt Regency. I bought a couple of $200 gift cards at a Hyatt Regency on separate American Express cards, so that $400 only cost us $280.
I’d tried buying another $200 card at a different Hyatt Regency, but the way it was processed didn’t trigger the Amex Offer. Despite that, I somehow ended up with $400 on the card (I only noticed when it came time to pay for this stay), so that was an unexpected $200 bonus!
Then a day or two before the end of our stay, a new Hyatt Place and Hyatt House Amex Offer appeared, also for $60 back when spending $200. We were able to add that to a couple of cards, so saved an additional $120.
That meant our $1,109.91 bill effectively only cost us $669.91 – or $55.83 per night – which is an absolute steal.
In return, we earned 4,911 World of Hyatt points. I have Explorist status which offers a 20% bonus on base points, so that was an extra 982 points. I also earned 5,000 bonus points from their current promotion as this stay pushed us over the 10 night threshold.
If we’d paid with points, it would’ve cost 5,000 points per night. Given the low net cost of the stay, it made more sense to pay cash than use points.
Final Thoughts
We greatly enjoyed our stay at the Hyatt Place Dallas/Garland/Richardson. We liked our bedroom, the breakfast, its amenities and in particular its staff.
Its biggest downside is that it takes a while to get into downtown Dallas, but that would’ve been less of an issue for us if it hadn’t rained so much.
If you need somewhere to stay in the north Dallas area, I’d highly recommend this hotel.
Truffles Approval Rating
Truffles gives this hotel four paws out of four – pawfect! She enjoyed how much love and attention she got from the front desk staff, as well as having so many grassy areas around the hotel.
As her pawrent, I appreciated not being charged the higher pet fee!
Our Rating
Room = 4.6 / 5
Hotel Amenities = 4.2 / 5
Food = 4.6 / 5
Location = 4.2 / 5
Service = 4.9 / 5
Overall Value = 4.7 / 5
Total = 4.53 / 5
Address
Hyatt Place, 5101 N President George Bush Hwy, Garland, TX 75040
Leave a Reply